Judge hears closing arguments in death of Marietta-teen Jordan Davis

By Tom Watkins and Eliott McLaughlin CNN |
2/12/2014, 4:46 p.m.

Michael Dunn's fate now rests with the jury.

The case moved Wednesday after a prosecutor said in closing arguments that inconsistencies between the words and actions of Dunn have undermined his claim that he was acting in self defense when he fatally shot a teenager at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dunn was in his ninth day of trial on a murder charge and three counts of attempted murder stemming from a November 2012 incident in which he opened fire on an SUV full of teenagers after an altercation over loud music. Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old high school student, was killed. The 47-year-old defendant faces a fifth charge of shooting or throwing deadly missiles.

Dunn's lawyer countered that the state had failed in its quest to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his client was guilty and pleaded with jurors to find him not guilty.

In testimony on Tuesday, Dunn said he fired in self-defense after Davis threatened him with a gun. "My intent was to stop the attack, not necessarily end a life," he said. "It just worked out that way."

But Assistant State Attorney Erin Wolfson said Wednesday that his claims don't add up.

She noted that Dunn fired 10 shots at the SUV, three of them while the car was fleeing; that he never took cover -- but instead opened his car door -- even though he would later tell detectives that he had seen a weapon; that he did not tell his fiancee, Rhonda Rouer, that he had seen a weapon until more than a month later; that he left the scene of the shooting, went back to a hotel where they were staying and walked his dog and returned the next day to his house -- more than two hours away -- all without calling 911.

She also rejected Dunn's assertion that Davis was carrying a gun.

"There was no gun," she told jurors.

"This defendant didn't tell anyone because he thought he had gotten away with murder," she said, adding that Dunn had no idea that a witness had taken down his tag number.

The teens had simply been "riding around listening to music, going to the town center, trying to meet girls," Wolfson said. "What any normal teenagers would do."

But what happened when Dunn pulled up next to the youths' SUV, from which music was blaring, was not normal. "Two worlds collided," Wolfson said.

Dunn has testified that he described the music to Rouer as "rap crap;" Rouer has testified that he referred to it as "thug music."

Whatever the semantics, one of the youths went inside to buy gum and cigarettes at about the same time that Rouer also went inside for white wine and chips, according to testimony.

The first shot was fired less than two minutes after Rouer entered the gas station, enough time for Dunn to commit murder in the first degree, Wolfson said.

In the parking lot, as the music blared, "his blood started to boil; he didn't like the music that was coming out of the car next to him; he got angrier and angrier," Wolfson said.